Rape: 'Ashamed' spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar slams Asaram, Sai

Ahmedabad, Oct 22: Spiritual gurus in the country seem to be ashamed over continuous report of sexual assault and rape allegations against Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai. Breaking his silence over the controversies, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Tuesday, Oct 22 hit out at the father-son duo.

Asking Narayan Sai to surrender himself before police, Sri Sri claimed, "Narayan Sai should not be afraid of police if he is right." The pioneer of Art of Living (AoL) also added that Sai will not get any solution if he continues to play the hide and seek game with police by evading law.

Without hiding his disappointment over the whole controversies, Sri Sri chided, "The whole alleged episode has brought a stigma to the entire Sant Samaj in the country."

Sri Sri earlier had tweeted, If you're a public figure & have made a mistake,you must publicly admit it.People have bigger hearts than you think.They'll forgive & forget."

It was reported that Sri Sri's advice on micro-blogging site was directed at Asaram as the tweet had surfaced during the time when Jodhpur police had taken Asaram into their custody.

Asaram episode brought a stigma to the entire Sant Samaj in the country

Sai is absconding ever since rape case has been filed against him and his father by two Surat-based sisters. In their police complaint, the two sisters hurled serious allegations against the father-son duo. While the elder sister accused Asaram of raping her between 1997 and 2006 during the time she had been living in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city.

The younger sister had filed a complaint against Sai, accusing him of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living in their Surat ashram.

Meanwhile, media reports claimed that one of the two sisters, during police interrogation, also informed that many rape victims in Asaram's ashram were taken to a hospital for 'forced abortions'.

According to reports, Ahmedabad police will now investigate about the hospital in question and the doctors involved in a serious crime. Another report said that Asaram's Ahmedabad ashram's administrator Dhruviben (one of the accused in the FIR) used to take rape victims to a hospital for abortions purpose.

72-year-old Asaram was arrested from his ashram in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. A 16-year-old girl filed a police case accusing him of assaulting her sexually in his ashram near Jodhpur in Rajasthan on Aug 15. Asaram has been denied bail and currently is in police custody of Gujarat Police.